They're great paintings, to be that complex yet that readable is an accomplishment. I am very slowly learning a lot of it's usually about good planning. And obviously the colour is great, the bright parts mean more when the neutral parts are so perfectly controlled.

He's great, I have several of his books. Clear and unique compositions, with a cool moody and cartoony feel. There is a great book called California Scene Painters that includes Kingman, Lee & Mary Blair, Fletcher Martin, Hardie Gramatky, and other great watercolorists.

As an interesting aside,when Hank Ketcham was preparing for his all too brief fine arts career,he had a few classes with Dong Kingman. Hank loved the watercolor processand tried to approach his cartooning with that same spontaneous feel.

I love the colors and the composition from Dong Kingman! Very natural and exciting at the same time! Every time I read your posts, I start to understand colors a little more. And it's always a pleasure to be introduced to new artists. I only wish I could paint or at least use colored pencils. I already know markers hate me.

I do agree that cartoons should have better colors. It not only appeals to the kids, but to the adults as well. Even the teenagers can get sick of seeing the garish colors constantly.

I always believed that cartoons were for everyone, not just for kids, unless I'm missing something.

Great to see that Kingman hasn't been entirely forgotten. He was something of a household name in the San Francisco Bay Area when I was growing up - well, as household a name for a fine artist can be, anyway. You'd see his name in the papers and reproductions and lithographs of his work in shops all over. Some of his work can be seen inn the title sequences of some films. Particularly gorgeous are his paintings during the main titles of "Flower Drum Song," which naturally feature some SF scenes. His painting of the Golden Gate Bridge dissolves into live-action of the bridge itself. Also "55 Days at Peking" and "The Sand Pebbles."

BEAUTY!!! I just LOVE BGs. They're my current passion. What stumps me is proper line weight and hierarchies on buildings. I have industrial design books that instruct proper clean up, but I notice that Maurice Noble and many other BG layout artists work contrary to these books and do not thicken the baseline of a building like a product illustrator. A building and a product are not the same thing. My friend Aaron says, the reason why the line is not thickest at the bottom of drawn building, is that in life, you can't see under it (the building).